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For 24 hours, starting at 8pm on April 23rd, London is becoming a giant game grid for runners. It’s called (appropriately) Nike Grid.

The idea is to run from checkpoint to checkpoint, racking up as many points as possible. In this case, the checkpoints are phone booths. Once you reach a designated booth (as noted in the game rules), you call a number, enter your game pin, and get points. Once an hour, a booth will “go Lunar” and the first person to get there will get a chance to design their own LunarElite+ running shoe.

According to Nike,

Rules for running the Grid are posted on the Nike Grid website: no walking; no buses; don’t run through walls or walk on water; and don’t even think about cheating! “The Grid will know,” says a comment on the Facebook page, in response to one question asking how Nike can keep people from claiming points after riding bikes or taking the bus between pay phones. “If we reveal how we know, people will try to get around it. It is never foolproof, but we have ways of monitoring,” states a follow-up comment.

Ummm hello? Can we get some United States action for this type of game? Maybe… Boston? ;)

Has anyone else read about this? I have to say, I’m really impressed. To summarize, a gamer was 14 years old when he started tipping the scales at 300 pounds. He realized he had to make a change and, rather than diet like everyone else, he created a weight-loss plan based on video game strategies. He set out to “beat the game” and collect as many points/accomplishments as possible (i.e. exercising was earning points, eating junk food was losing points). Not only am I impressed that someone created such a unique program for themselves, but he did it at 14! And with the video gaming community being stereotypically out of shape, I’m really interested to see if this takes off. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to follow a diet and exercise plan that does not make sense or appeal to you… he completely solved his own problem. I love it.

This Weekend
…has been so lazy. I’m okay with it.

No that’s not true. Yesterday I set out on my longest training run to date: 8 miles! I didn’t have the best dinner the night before (edamame and a slice of pizza) and I hadn’t done a distance run in about two weeks. But the weather was beautiful and I took it easy as to not aggravate my hip again.

Like I said, nice and easy. The sidewalks and roads are still really icy, so there were some points where I had to come to almost a complete stop in order to navigate the ice and snow. In a vain attempt to keep running and change from sidewalk to street, I ended up putting my foot right into a snowbank. At mile 5. Mmmm chilly foot. I also ran with my water belt for the first time, since I tend to get thirsty in a snap when I run. It was a little weird… glad I’m not going to have to do that in the race (there are 9 water stops along the course, no problem).

I also tried running with my Nike+ for the first time. I did a 0.25 mile walk then 0.25 mile run to calibrate. It so did not calibrate. When my Garmin read 0.96 miles, Nike+ said 1 mile. No biggie, pretty close. But soon enough it was off by half a mile or more. This was particularly torturous when I was at 7.11 and it said “Congratulations, 8 miles complete” and I’m like “NO IT’S NOT YOU STUPID SENSOR, I HAVE ALMOST A MILE TO GO I HATE YOU.” Seriously, I don’t want to hear I’m “done” when I’m clearly not. Also not using this during my race. I don’t want it telling me I’m done with the half at mile 11. What a tease.

Has anyone had any good luck calibrating their Nike+? Any tips for making it work better? It’s definitely not a necessity with my trusty Garmin by my side, but I have it, so I might as well Tim Gunn it and Make it Work™.

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a marvelous holiday! I’ll be catching up with my reading soon.

Holy moly, Santa was very good to me this year. Among the accessories and cookware I got, there were a few running items thrown in:

a pair of CW-X tights (!!)

a refurbished iPod Nano to replace my busted iPod

Nike+ sport kit

a subscription to Runner’s World magazine

and…

I opened it and was like ARE YOU SERIOUS?! So nuts. Thank goodness for Black Friday deals. It looks absolutely ridiculous on my miniscule wrist, but I love it all the same. I want to take it out for a test run (haaa) today. It’s pouring outside, but it’s also 47° so I might just go for it anyway.

And now I’m off to spend the rest of my day looking out the window and hoping the rain might lighten up…